Friends

December 17 Word or phrase. A word that encapsulates your year. "2009 was _____."

I've been thinking about this one a lot. And my answer is: 2009 was BORING. Not in a bad way at all- this was just so needed. Norman and I have had major turbulence in our lives ever since like, 3 months after we met. Not with each other, but with just about everything else. Not always bad turbulence (like getting married, or moving here), but huge transitions. From the beginning of 2009 to end, we have been married, had the same jobs, had Otis, lived in Chicago, had an incredibly stable life. This stability has allowed us to get ourselves organized to do important things in life, like start seriously saving money, make plans for the future, purchase our home (I guess that's somewhat turbulent, but not really), and for me to have the emotional headspace to consider school again. Throughout this "best of 2009" I've been coming up short on some answers, because nothing much about this year stands out to me. And while it feels a little lame filling out this survey thingy, it ultimately feels GOOD.

December 18 Shop. Online or offline, where did you spend most of your mad money this year?

The house. Not just in terms of the down payment which sucked away much of our savings, but also the renovations. Over the course of three weeks, we completely redid the floors, the walls, all lighting and faucet fixtures, and some new furniture. We spent about 8k on all that, an intentional amount of money since that's what we will get for the home buyer credit. While I take serious issue with that 8k politically ( I think it's a stupid waste of resources right now and doesn't really help the economy in general), in our case it was really helpful to us AND helped some small businesses (the contractors we hired).

December 19 Car ride. What did you see? How did it smell? Did you eat anything as you drove there? Who were you with?

When Norman and I drove back from Asheville NC to Chicago, we left very early in the morning and the clouds/fog hadn't quite risen out of the mountains. The drive through Tennessee was really breathtaking.

Also, it was the first car ride that Norman did some of the driving, so I could enjoy the view for the first time in years. Yay!

December 20 New person. She came into your life and turned it upside down. He went out of his way to provide incredible customer service. Who is your unsung hero of 2009?

My favorite new person this year did all of the above (changed my life, good customer service, total hero): our real estate agent, Kelly Leggett. He's our friend's uncle, and has now become an amazing friend to us. Who ever knew someone who works in real estate would be such an good person? He was so calm and rational through such tense negotiations, and was always there for us, even though he had a serious health problem of his own. We couldn't have done it without him. Everyone who meets him likes him.  He donated a portion of his commission to greyhound rescue. Overall... a really great guy.

December 21 Project. What did you start this year that you're proud of?

This has kind of been the year of unfinished projects. really, I've had problems finishing books, finishing knitting projects, and more. I'm most proud of the sweater from Fitted Knits that I am about 7/8 of the way done with, but haven't touched it in about 6 months. Seriously, what gives??

December 22 Startup. What's a business that you found this year that you love? Who thought it up? What makes it special?

Most of all I'm really excited and proud of my friends who in 2009 started selling crafty things on Etsy and are doing well with it. disolvinggirl and adr0ck , your businesses rule! congrats!

Originally published at the scowl. You can comment here or there.

Am I crazy, or is the riff that begins five seconds into The Soft Pack’s “C’mon” more or less the same as the one that opens Catherine Wheel’s “Show Me Mary”?

(Mind you, as a fan of both bands, I do not consider this to be a bad thing.)

Originally published at the scowl. You can comment here or there.

Some thoughts on books I liked that came out in 2009 can be found at Big Other and Vol.1.

Both of these end up being de facto “favorite novels of 2009″ lists as, The Adderall Diaries aside, I did not delve into the year’s nonfiction all that much.

Originally published at the scowl. You can comment here or there.

As a quick reminder: I’m taking part in Dzanc Books’ Write-A-Thon today.

My earlier post on the subject had some background on it and why I’m taking part. Other folks taking part include Steven Gillis, J.A. Tyler, and Jana Martin, among others.

I can also say that my story references the musician known as Solex, the city known as Budapest, and the precipitation known as snow.

I think its tone presently fits somewhere between “wistful” and “creepy.”

Originally published at the scowl. You can comment here or there.

I reviewed the film Crazy Heart for Flavorwire. My thoughts on it were somewhat mixed.

Writer-director Cooper — here adapting Thomas Cobb’s novel — introduces the less savory aspects of Blake’s life with a heavy hand. That includes early scenes in which Blake handles a bottle of his own urine and drunkenly fishes his sunglasses out of a pool of vomit. Bad Blake is a mixture of admirable work ethic and disreputable habits, but the low vocal register in which Bridges suggests decades of hard living and unhealthy habits is much more striking than these small moments of degradation.

You can read the whole thing here.

This past October, I hosted a bachelorette party for Diane. The theme was "farewell brooklyn" as she was moving to Hong Kong after her wedding. We hit up some of her favorite places, including Moe's. At Moe's, my 2ct topaz- which Norman bought in Rio De Janeiro as a wedding/honeymoon gift for me-- snapped off my neck.

I was really bummed about it. Not only for the expense, and because I loved that thing, but mostly because of the sentiment. Last night at 11pm I was just falling asleep when my phone rang, some long string of numbers, so I ignored it. Then at 6:30am the same thing happened, so I picked it up.

"DORA! DORA! ITS ME!!!!"

I realized it was Di so I bolted upright, awake and worried something was wrong, she wouldn't call from Hong Kong unless it was an emergency.

"I FOUND YOUR TOPAZ!!!!!"

She and Noah packed up a lot of stuff to be sent over by professional shippers. They got their delivery today and she was setting everything up, and she saw a shopping bag filled with things from the bachelorette party (gifts, etc), reached in to unpack things, and saw something glittery at the bottom of the bag.

Somehow the gemstone, when it flew off my neck that night, landed in that shopping bag, and was subsequently was shipped to Hong Kong with Diane's stuff.

Diane called me the moment she found it- early in the morning by her time (11pm for me). Because of the time change, Diane went bonkers waiting all day long til an appropriate time of day to call me and tell me the good news.




She took this photo about 8 hours ago in her apartment in HK.

Isn't that crazy??? When I get this thing back, it will be one well-traveled gemstone, let me tell you.

Originally published at the scowl. You can comment here or there.

It’s worth mentioning that both Dusted and Tiny Mix Tapes now have their musical year-in-review polls and features up. I contributed to both, though my ballots for each were slightly different. I’ll also have some more book-oriented thoughts due in the not-so-distant future for Big Other and Vol. 1 — though for the former, I also attempted to make amends for leaving Thee Oh Sees’ Help off both my Dusted and TMT ballots.

TOP 10 ALBUMS (for Dusted, 11.29.09)

1. David Bazan, Curse Your Branches
2. Pink Mountaintops, Outside Love
3. The Dutchess and The Duke, Sunset/Sunrise
4. Yo La Tengo, Popular Songs
5. Fuck Buttons, Tarot Sport
6. Julianna Barwick, Florine
7. Dan Deacon, Bromst
8. Animal Collective, Merriweather Post Pavilion
9. Screaming Females, Power Move
10. Various Artists, Fire In My Bones: Raw Rare + Otherwordly African-American Gospel (1944-2007)

TOP 25 ALBUMS (for Tiny Mix Tapes, 12.4.09)

25. Amadou & Mariam, Welcome to Mali
24. No Age, Losing Feeling
23. Comet Gain, Broken Record Prayers
22. Various Artists, Dark Was the Night
21. Obits, I Blame You
20. Bon Iver, Blood Bank
19. Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
18. Girls, Album
17. Califone,  All My Friends Are Funeral Singers
16. Noveller, Red Rainbows
15. dälek, Gutter Tactics
14. Jonsi & Alex, Riceboy Sleeps
[Note: my original #13 was also the Screaming Females disc, because I apparently can't count. All things being equal, the Oh Sees album mentioned above would fit pretty nicely into this slot, I'd say.]
12. The Mountain Goats, The Life of the World to Come
11. Yo La Tengo, Popular Songs
10. Dan Deacon, Bromst
9. Tune-Yards, Bird-Brain
8. Screaming Females, Power Move
7. Animal Collective, Merriweather Post Pavilion
6. Various Artists, Fire In My Bones: Raw Rare + Otherwordly African-American Gospel (1944-2007)
5. Julianna Barwick, Florine
4. Fuck Buttons, Tarot Sport
3. Pink Mountaintops, Outside Love
2. The Dutchess and The Duke, Sunset/Sunrise
1. David Bazan,  Curse Your Branches

Originally published at the scowl. You can comment here or there.

For the last few years, I’ve been out in the Northwest at least once a year. And while my fondness for Portland’s Powell’s is something of a given, I’m equally fond of Seattle’s Elliott Bay Book Company, a store I first visited while on a trip to Seattle in mid-2004. Beyond simply falling for the space itself, it’s always struck me as the ideal of a well-curated bookstore, with smart recommendations and an oddly rewarding browsing experience. And given that one of their staff recommendations turned me on to the work of Charles D’Ambrosio, I have no complaints.

I’d followed the news of their issues with their current space and possible move with interest, and I’m glad to hear that a new space has been found. This piece in The Stranger gives a history of both the store as a while and the process by which they found the space which — if all goes according to plan — I’ll be trekking to when making my annual trip out west next April.

We moved!

moving:

Friday was predictably hectic, but I must say the movers were SO awesome. This was my first time ever hiring movers and wow, what a difference. These guys are famously good-humored (all their yelp.com reviews indicated so), and they were a blast. Laughing and joking the whole time. It really took the edge off an otherwise stressful day. I don't handle moving well, as evidenced by my whiny posts last week. I will admit to hiding in the bathroom a couple of times and taking lots of deep breaths to calm myself down. But otherwise, it wasn't too bad.

Man... did we ever accumulate a lot of stuff in the last 2.5 years... so. much. stuff.

We left a bunch of items at the old place. We knew we'd need to get rid of some stuff and meant to send an email blast to our friends to see if anyone could use them, or even try to sell some of the more valuable stuff, but we didn't get around to it and Saturday that stuff needed to be GONE. We thought: in this economy, with so many people unemployed, maybe some people out there could really make use of this. So we put an ad on Craigslist advertising a list of great stuff available for free... and then spent all day Saturday shepherding the various people. A lot of people flaked and that really pissed me off, but a few people were really happy and said they can make great use of the stuff, so it worked out in the end.

As for the new place: settling in is coming along! Some new apartment things:

* We are unpacked enough to utilize the house, i.e. I was able to finally cook a real meal yesterday, and we can shower and sort of find acceptable clothing, and the TV and internet are installed, etc. But there's a point in every move where you have unpacked just enough that it's livable but not great, and I have a bad habit of seriously slowing down the unpacking when I've reached that point. I don't want to do that this time!!!

*It's really a different experience moving in somewhere where you have every intention and the ability to stay for many, many years. When we first moved to Chicago, we had no idea how long we'd stay in that place, so we never invested much in it. This time, we're splurging on the RIGHT storage containers etc, not just things that will simply get the job done.

*The same goes for art and decor. We aren't in a rush and want to get things that are meaningful to us, but there are some large empty walls in our place that are prime for large visual art pieces. Looking forward to decorating this place like my real, permanent home!

*It's interesting to *live there* after about 5 months of touring the place, inspection, walk-throughs, renovations, showing friends, etc. There are some things you don't know until you live there, like: how is the water pressure (AWESOME)? What kinds of noises does the neighborhood make late at night (some definite 'hood noises but nothing awful)? How will the dog like it (he's finding his hang-out spots)? How are the appliances (the washer/dryer isn't great, and neither is the dishwasher. They're both 10 years old and will probably need replacing, SIGH).

* While we moved from a 2-bedroom to another 2-bedroom, the new place is MUCH BIGGER, I didn't even realize. The layout is a bit different, which makes it more sprawling, and each room is a little bigger than the old place. We keep accidentally losing Otis. Not really losing him, just like "hey, where is the dog?" moments.

*It's much, much more urban there. Our old place was a solid, mostly residential, 10-12 minute walk to get into the heart of Wicker Park. Our new place is almost at the corner of a major avenue with a grocery store, coffee shops, the subway, restaurants, etc all spitting distance away. This was a big appeal of this apartment and I'm loving it so far. In fact, I don't think I realized how much I missed this about my life back in NYC, when I was right by 5th ave in Brooklyn, having all that stuff at my fingertips.